The game only got better from there.
After Seunghoon secured First Blood with Seryn mid, everything fell into place. His lane opponent tried to play aggressively again, but they couldn't get past his spacing.
Almost every skill Seunghoon threw was precise, but still, there were times that he would miss. By the 10-minute mark, he was two kills up, and had forced his opponent to recall twice.
"Mid gap's getting out of control," Minjae muttered, watching from top as Seunghoon roamed around the map.
"Bro, how the hell did we doubt him?" Gyubin asked, half-laughing and half-shocked as he cleared the minion wave on the bot side.
"I feel like a newbie in the game while he's an expert."
"I know, right?" Doha added, "We're just doing our own thing, but Seunghoon was doing everything.
[Red has slain an enemy!]
"HAHAHAHAH WTF?"
"Brooo what did I just witness?"
"lmaoooo..."
They exploded into cheers and laughter as Seunghoon's Seryn blinked through a messy fight in the jungle, using her Voidlash to slice through two retreating targets.
Even Juhwan, who was normally calm and collected, leaned over to peek at Seunghoon's screen.
"Bro... you're good."
Seunghoon didn't answer and just laughed at him.
He was already watching the map and calling objectives in short phrases.
"Top turret's low. If Minjae can hold the wave, I can rotate." Sёarch* The NovelZone.fun website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
"On it," Minjae replied instantly.
Twenty minutes in, it wasn't even close. Their team was ahead by nearly 4k gold. Seunghoon had six three, four assists, and only 1 death.
He didn't just win his lane—he completely opened the map for them..
[Red has slain an enemy!]
[Red is on a Killing Spree!]
"Holy shit," Doha laughed, "we were clowns for doubting you."
"Yeah. I take back everything I said," Gyubin added. "Seryn off-meta my ass."
Juhwan just shook his head, a grin forming on his face.
"Nah. I knew it. I totally knew it."
They ended the game at 29 minutes with a clean ace.
[Victory!]
The post-match stats flashed onto the screen. Seunghoon was 6/1/7. His damage was more than double anyone else on the map.
"Jesus Christ," Gyubin muttered. "That didn't feel like ranked. That felt like we queued with a pro on his day off."
"Not gonna lie, I thought we were gonna carry," Doha added. "But uh... clearly we're the ones getting hard carried."
The group laughed, and before long, they queued again.
Second match in and they had the same energy.
Seunghoon picked Seryn again.
"Back on her?" Juhwan asked.
"Yup. I'm trying to spam her so that I can be familiar with her again," Seunghoon said with a smile on his face as he rolled his shoulders back.
Another match and another carry for Seunghoon. However, this time it seemed like the others also want to step up in the game. They became more active and more aggressive.
It was partially thanks to Seunghoon as he roamed bot early and gave Gyubin a lead.
Just like that and they won the second game in 26 minutes.
For their third match, it was the same story.
By the fourth game, none of them questioned Seunghoon's questionable picks anymore.
"Just give him mid and get out of the way," Minjae said flatly.
"Exactly," Doha agreed. "We support so we can win."
Even Gyubin, who had the loudest mouth in the group, was now letting Seunghoon call the shots in the game.
While queuing for their last and final game, Gyubin tabbed and checked Seunghoon's profile. His eyes widened in shock.
"Wait. What the hell is this?" he asked suddenly. He stared at his screen as if there was something wrong in them.
"Guys... look at Red's profile."
One by one, the rest of the group opened his match history and stared at the screen.
A second of silence followed.
"...45% winrate?" Juhwan squinted.
"You're kidding," Doha said. "That's—bro, that's impossible. Are you smurfing? There's no way you're this good and you're stuck in that."
Seunghoon leaned back slightly, unsure of how to respond.
"Huh?"
"No, look at this," Gyubin turned his screen slightly toward Minjae. "This guy's stats look like downshit last season and suddenly he's doing all these miracle works"
"Wait. Did you buy this account?" Minjae asked him in a curious tone.
Seunghoon paused for a moment, only to realize what they were saying.
It was probably his winrate.
Right. This account wasn't technically his.
So technically... they weren't wrong.
"I mean..." Seunghoon shrugged casually, his lips twitching at the corner. "Something like that."
"Bro," Juhwan wheezed. "That makes way more sense."
"No way in hell someone with thousands of games and 43% winrate plays like this," Gyubin added.
Juhwan leaned over with wide eyes. "You're high ranked right? Why did you buy an account anyway?"
"Did you get banned from shitting the chat?" Doha chuckled as he thought of it. A lot of cases happened like that so it was of no surprise.
"Yeah, you can say that." Seunghoon laughed with them to mask his lies.
The group burst into laughter the moment Seunghoon confirmed their suspicions. It was the kind of laughter that came from shared understanding.
"Man, I swear—buying accounts is the new meta," Doha said between chuckles. "Last year I got banned for flaming my duo. Dude kept running it down on purpose!"
"I got banned in Season 18 for AFKing too much," Gyubin added. "One more disconnect and boom, suspended. I had to climb all over again from scratch."
"Same," Juhwan snorted. "I got tilted and typed a death threat in ranked once. I forgot that was my final straw."
"That's insane," Minjae muttered. "You guys are psychos."
Seunghoon laughed for real this time. He wasn't even trying to hide it.
"Man, you guys are crazy," he said, shaking his head with a grin still tugging at his lips.
"Crazy but honest," Juhwan grinned. "And you, my friend, are a demon in disguise. You just queue'd up and casually 1v9'd like that."
"Thanks for carrying us, bro," Doha added dramatically. "You deserve a head."
"A head?" Gyubin scoffed. "I'm about to bend bro. Just say the word."
Seunghoon laughed again, harder this time. He leaned back on his chair and covered his mouth, his eyes crinkling with amusement.
"Stop," he said between snorts. "You guys are too much."
"No, seriously," Juhwan said, his tone shifting just slightly into something more genuine. "That was insane. I've played with a lot of randoms. And yeah, some are cracked—but you? You're different."
Gyubin nodded, his joking tone replaced by curiosity.
"Have you actually thought of streaming?"
Seunghoon blinked, his smile still lingering but faltering just a bit. "Streaming?"
"Yeah," Minjae added. "I mean... you've got the mechanics, the awareness, the confidence. And you're not annoying, which is rare as hell in this community."
"Exactly," Doha chimed in. "People would love watching your gameplay. I'd watch. I'd donate too."
"Same," Gyubin said. "Especially if you keep spamming off-meta picks and making them look meta. That's like peak content."
Streaming?
Seunghoon hadn't really considered it. Not once. It always felt like a thing for loud personalities or people who were fun enough for the viewers to watch.
'Hmm...' that made him think about it.
=====
A/N: Now that my uni is done, daily updates will start next week. Thank you for being patient with the novel!